Organic Chemistry of Polyanilines: Tailoring Properties to Technological Applications

ABSTRACT

The use of organic chemistry reactions to introduce additional functional groups on polyanilines is described. Among the reactions discussed are: electrophilic aromatic substitution, nucleophilic addition to the aromatic rings, nucleophilic substitution on the amine groups and reactions on pendant groups. The use of combinatorial chemistry techniques, by coupling of combinatorially synthesised diazonium salts with polyaniline, to produce a functionalized polyanilines library is also reviewed. The modification of polyaniline introduces or alters different properties of the materials: solubility, self-doping and redox coupled ion exchange. The tailoring of those properties to technical applications is therefore examined.